


In Case of Emergency

by graysonsflight



Series: Lost and Found [23]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Batbrothers (DCU) Bonding, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Gen, Jason is trying really hard to be a brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23896747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graysonsflight/pseuds/graysonsflight
Summary: Jason hadn’t planned on spending the night at the Manor. Just like he hadn’t meant to overhear Tim’s nightmares. And he defiantly hadn’t set out to be comforting his replacement – and yet…
Relationships: Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Series: Lost and Found [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/58469
Comments: 22
Kudos: 248





	In Case of Emergency

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AuroraKant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraKant/gifts).



> I needed a little bit of fluff - and so here it is. Thank you to AuroraKant for the prompt: “Jason building a blanket fort for Tim after a nightmare”

Jason stalked through the dark halls of the manor. He hadn’t meant to be here this late, had never planned on staying the night. But what had started out as dinner with _the family_ , as per Alfred’s request, had evolved one step at a time until the wily Englishman had promised a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, knowing _full well_ Jason would never be able to turn those down.

It was late and the others, even Bruce, were all safely tucked behind the closed doors of their bedrooms. Jason knew he could go to his – that Alfred had made sure there were clean sheets and probably a new book waiting on the nightstand for him, but he couldn’t rest. Something inside of him refused to let him keep still.

As he moved down the hall, Jason heard the faint sound of someone talking in their sleep. It wasn’t a surprise. He knew both Dick and Bruce talked in their sleep – the older of the two only did it when he was really out though and Jason was too far down the hall for it to be either of them. Curious, he crept closer to the door the sounds were coming from. No light spilled from beneath the door, but the sounds that did were quickly escalating. Jason stood, frozen, listening; what had started as quiet mutterings was getting closer and closer to panicked cries. He knew that this was Tim’s door. Knew that he and his replacement were not _close_ , but that was mostly his own doing. Jason had wanted the kid at arm’s reach, but hearing what sounded like a horrible dream on the other end of the door, still made his heart hurt. He knew what it was like to see monsters behind closed eyes. Before he could think better of it, Jason pushed the door open, letting the shallow moonlight spill over the threshold.

Tucked into the corner of the room, he could see Tim, wound tightly in his sheets, tossing and turning, his hands trapped but still flailing. Jason sighed. He considered going to wake Dick up – comforting nightmares had always been something the older boy was good at, but then there’d be three of them awake and Dickiebird probably needed as much sleep as he could get.

Slowly, Jason made his way into the room.

“Tim,” he whispered. “Hey, it’s a dream, okay?” But the smaller boy couldn’t hear him. Jason crept closer, until he was standing above the bed. He watched as Tim continued to thrash, almost growling as he fought his demons.

As carefully as he could, Jason crouched down, balancing his weight on his heels so he’d be level with Tim’s prone form. The last thing the kid needed was to be shaken awake with someone as big as Jason towering over him. He braced himself, knowing the likelihood of being hit when he made contact, and reached out a hand to Tim’s shoulder.

“Wake up,” he prompted. “Whatever it is, it’s not real.”

The contact jarred Tim awake, his left fist swinging wildly towards Jason’s head. The older boy caught it easily, and held on until Tim’s eyes focused in on him.

“What are you…?” Tim stuttered, disbelief clear on his face. “Jason?”

“You were dreaming,” Jason offered, letting go and moving to stand. “It sounded bad.”

“It wasn’t great,” Tim agreed, sitting up as well. He pulled at the blankets untangling himself as he went.

Jason didn’t bother to ask what the dream had been about. If it had been him, he knew he’d have no interest in talking about it.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to sleep,” he said, moving towards the door before Tim’s bitter laughter stopped him.

“I’m not going back to sleep after that.”

Jason considered him then, the beginning of a plan starting to take shape in his head. When he was younger, eleven and freshly moved into the manner, Dick at thirteen had done this for him. He had been the one to walk into Jason’s room and try and banish the nightmares.

“Come on,” Jason said, pulling the blanket from the bottom of Tim’s bed.

“What?” But Tim was already scrambling to comply, pulling a pair of sweats on over his boxers.

Jason didn’t bother to explain, he just scooped a second blanket and headed for the door. He was pretty impressed by the fact that the kid just followed without any more questions. As quietly as he could, Jason led them to the library.

“Help me move the table,” he said, gripping one end of the big table Bruce had put in when both Dick and Jason had needed a place to do their homework. Tim moved easily to the other side and the two of them walked the big mahogany monstrosity until it was pressed against one of the bookshelves. And then Jason went to work. As Tim watched, he moved the chairs across from the table, tying corners of the blankets to the backs and letting them lay over the top of the table. He moved to the back of the library to grab the law books, stacking them neatly on the table to help hold the blankets in place.

“Can I help?” Tim asked, his hands looked like they were itching to do something. Jason knew that feeling.

“Go grab the cushions off the couch,” Jason instructed, as he stepped back to observe his handiwork.

Tim turned and left, leaving Jason alone in the room. He ducked under the table with a sigh. It would be a much tighter fit than when he had been a scrawny eleven-year-old, but they’d make it work. There were just a few more things he needed. Passing Tim in the hall, he told him to get the cushions under the table and he’d be back in a minute. Jason made his way to the kitchen, pulling the battery operated camping lantern down from the pantry where Alfred kept it _in case of emergencies_. He knew this wasn’t exactly what Alfred had in mind, but it was close enough. Turning a full circle, Jason spotted the other thing he needed: Alfred had left a plate of cookies sitting on the counter. He grabbed it and started his way back to the library.

“Here,” he said, handing Tim the plate. “Get in.” To his credit, Tim didn’t ask any questions. There was just one more thing Jason needed and he didn’t need to turn the lights on to find it. Walking over toward Bruce’s upstairs desk, Jason pulled a battered copy of _The Hobbit_ from the shelf behind it.

He felt his joints creak as he got down on his knees to join Tim under the table. He was right – it was a tight fit, but with how slender the kid was, they had enough room to not touch each other.

“So…” Tim started, cookie in his hand but not in his mouth. “Is this where you kill me?” His tone was light, trying to joke, but Jason could still sense his unease.

“Haven’t you ever built a fort before?” Jason asked, grabbing a cookie for himself.

“No?”

_Huh._ Jason almost told him that he and Dick used to do this all the time, but he was pretty sure it would have made things worse. He shoved the cookie into his mouth instead; briefly he wondered why Dick had never done this with Tim.

“You know…” Tim started. “You know I’m eighteen, right?”

Jason shrugged. “And did you _have_ a childhood?” he asked, looking pointedly at the cookie still uneaten in Tim’s hand. The kid got the hint.

“No,” he mumbled, his mouth now full of cookie.

“Then welcome to the fort.”

Tim nodded, looking around them, the hint of a smile on his face as he chewed.

“ ‘S a good fort,” he swallowed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “What do we do in it?”

“I read _The Hobbit_ , and you listen,” Jason answered, moving to turn on the lantern. “Unless you’ve got something else you want to talk about?” He paused, turning to face the kid. It wasn’t exactly that he wanted to know about Tim’s nightmare. If Jason had his way, they’d actually just be sitting in silence reading their _own_ books, but this seemed like the right thing to do and –

“No,” Tim said, interrupting his thoughts. “I’ve never read _The Hobbit_.”

Jason blinked his eyes. It had never even occurred to him that Bruce would have only shared the book with _him_. Despite his intentions, it looked like there were several things he was going to have to teach his replacement.

“Right,” he said, leaning back. “ _In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”_ He continued to read aloud, catching himself as he heard his own voice changing to match Bruce’s usual cadence. He had made it through three pages before he stopped, pausing to look at the kid.

Tim was curled up beside him, his long limbs tucked in on themselves, head resting on top of his knees – and his eyes were closed.

Jason nodded to himself with a light smile. He’d let the kid sleep; Tolkien would still be there in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> :) This might be a part of my Lost and Found story-verse but we'll just keep it separate for now, yeah? Thank you for reading <3


End file.
